[Incubator] labs project assigning copyright

[Tim Schaub]

Hey-

Thanks for the responses.  A summary of my understanding:

Area of Agreement
-----------------

A project with a geospatial focus and an open source license may assign 
copyright to OSGeo by collecting copyright assignment agreements from 
all contributors.  These signed agreements must be delivered to the 
OSGeo Secretary.

Details Left to be Determined
-----------------------------

The incubation committee might be involved in determining if a project 
meets OSGeo criteria (geospatial + open source).  The signed agreement 
documents might be stored in a digital repository.


Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like GeoExt can assign copyright to OSGeo. 
  I have collected signed agreements from all contributors to the code 
base.  We are starting the process for an initial release this week, and 
I'll change the copyright statements in the code based on the assumption 
that the assignment is acceptable to OSGeo.

Tyler, I'll be happy to provide the agreements in whatever form works 
for you.  If there is anything else we should do before making the 
copyright change (or if this is not acceptable), please let me know.

Thanks,
Tim

Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>> Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>  
>>>>  o Projects wishing to assign copyright to the foundation should 
>>>> seek the
>>>>    agreement of the current OSGeo Secretary (currently Tyler), who 
>>>> if they
>>>>    are doubtful could seek input from the board.  For project in 
>>>> incubation
>>>>    or full OSGeo projects it should be automatic.
>>>>       
>>  >
>>  
>>> I think we need to include some guidelines on what projects OSGeo 
>>> will accept. Basically, projects can assign copyright to OSGeo if 
>>> they plan to eventually become OSGeo projects and conforming to the 
>>> OSGeo guidelines set out under OSGeo Labs.
>>>     
>>
>> Cameron,
>>
>> Why do you think such guidelines are needed?  Who would interprete them?
>> It seems like the "cost" of collecting contribution agreements is very
>> small and there is relatively little downside to accepting them on
>> behalf of a project in which the foundation might have little interest.
>>
>> If I were to propose guidelines it would be that this only be done
>> for projects with a geospatial connection and under an open source
>> license.
>>   
> The above sentence may be sufficient guidelines. Ie, Open Source + 
> Geospatial.
> I was thinking + working on becoming an OSGeo project (ie listing in 
> OSGeo labs) would be slightly better, but I don't feel strongly about it.
>>  
>>> I think that OSGeo labs should come under the responsibility of the 
>>> Incubation Committee, but am happy to bend on that point.
>>>     
>>
>> I'm agreeable, but not so certain that accepting contribution
>> agreements or copyright assignment needs to be related to OSGeo Labs.
>>
>>  
>>>>  o Agreements should all be stored in scanned format in the OSGeo SVN.
>>>>    We can give out SVN commit access to one or two representatives 
>>>> of each
>>>>    project so they can actually add the agreements themselves after 
>>>> some
>>>>    vetting.
>>>>       
>>> I don't think we need to be prescriptive about where agreements are 
>>> stored, so long as they are stored somewhere. It may be on OSGeo svn, 
>>> or the project svn, or a wiki or similar.
>>>     
>>
>> As legal documents of the foundation, the Secretary is responsible for
>> keeping them available and under his/her administration.  I am suggesting
>> we control their location in part to ensure that the Secretary will be
>> aware of their storage, and so there are relatively few places that we
>> need to be sure of capturing to have the foundations legal documents.
>>
>> In fact, I hope to also encourage scanning and storing in this fashion of
>> other foundation documents that are not confidential.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>   
> 
> 


-- 
Tim Schaub
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers.